Supreme Court Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin raised a red flag last September about the “bleakness and brutalism” of the new Memorial to the Victims of Communism, to be built this year on Wellington Street.

In a letter — obtained by the Citizen — to Michelle d’Auray, the deputy minister of Public Works, McLachlin wrote to “share some concerns” about the $5.5-million memorial, slated to sit on a prime 5,000-square-metre site between the Supreme Court building and Library and Archives Canada.

At that time, five possible designs were being considered for the memorial. Some, McLachlin wrote, “could send the wrong message within the judicial precinct, unintentionally conveying a sense of bleakness and brutalism that is inconsistent with a space dedicated to the administration of justice.”

The letter does not say whether the entry selected in December, submitted by Toronto’s ABSTRAKT Studio Architecture, was among those that caused McLachlin concern. Owen Rees, a spokesman for McLachlin, said Monday neither the chief justice nor the court would comment.

But Shirley Blumberg, a member of the selection jury who went public last month with her objections to the site chosen for the memorial, said the winning design “focused on the brutality and viciousness (of Communist regimes) in a disturbing way.

“It won’t move people to think that there could be a better world,” Blumberg, a prominent Toronto architect, said in an interview. “To me it’s just focusing on evil.

“A memorial has to acknowledge what happened and also point to the future. That’s what the Vietnam Memorial does so eloquently, as does Vimy Ridge. That’s what I would have liked to have seen for this monument.”

The winning design features six parallel concrete rows, rising 14.5 metres at their highest, covered with 100 million “memory squares,” each representing a life lost to Communist regimes worldwide.

McLachlin’s views about the memorial likely added further frost to her relationship with Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government, which has embraced the memorial project with enthusiasm.

Last year, Harper accused the chief justice of trying to lobby against the appointment of Federal Court of Appeal judge Marc Nadon to the Supreme Court.

Spokesmen for McLachlin denied the charge, saying she had simply wanted to flag her concern about the legal eligibility of federal court judges to fill Quebec vacancies on the court. The Supreme Court later quashed Nadon’s nomination, concluding he did not meet the eligibility requirements set out in the Supreme Court Act.

The federal government has pledged to contribute $3 million to the victims of communism project, first proposed by a private group called Tribute to Liberty. It also donated the site, valued at $1 million, which had previously been reserved for a new justice building to complete a planned triad of judicial buildings, centred on the Supreme Court.

Tribute to Liberty is supposed to raise the rest of the money. As of December, it said it had raised between $1.6 million and $1.7 million.

In her letter, McLachlin said she had no comment on the decision to erect the memorial or its placement. “That is for the government to decide.

“However, because the proposed grounds of the memorial will be within the judicial precinct,” she told d’Auray, “I would ask your department and the selection committee to ensure that the final design is consistent with, and enhances, the public’s respect for justice and the rule of law.”

McLachlin also pointedly reminded d’Auray that the chosen site “has long been designated” as part of the judicial precinct. “As you know, the Supreme Court of Canada sits at the apex of the justice system.”

Earlier this month, Larry Beasley, who chairs the National Capital Commission’s advisory committee on planning, design and realty, told Maclean’s magazine his committee did not favour the winning design.

Until recently, most of the controversy over the memorial centred on its site. Last September, Ottawa architect Barry Padolsky released an open letter to Harper, saying the site “needs a significant piece of architecture, not a low-profile landscaped memorial.”

Blumberg told the Citizen in December that placing a large memorial to victims of communism on the site “overshadows Canada’s true history” and “misrepresents and skews” what the country is all about.

In Monday’s interview, Blumberg, who emigrated to Canada from South Africa, said she was drawn to this country by its values of democracy, openness, freedom and transparency.

For nearly six decades, she said, the memorial site was designated as the future home of a justice building. “Then, in a matter of months, without any consultation, the government gave this site to a private group, Tribute to Liberty,” she said.

That lack of due public process is “undemocratic and very troubling,” Blumberg said. “That is not the Canada I thought I was emigrating to.

“This is right on Parliament Hill. That belongs to us. It does not belong to Mr. Harper or his government.”

Despite the growing opposition, there is little chance the memorial will be derailed. The current timetable calls for “major elements” to be completed and ready for an inauguration next fall, in time for the scheduled Oct. 19 federal election.

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